NELSON MANDELA LIVING LEGEND WHO PAVED THE PATH FOR
GENERATIONS TO COME

Anyone who reaches the age of 95 deserves admiration,
but what I admire most about Nelson Mandela is his
determination and capacity to forgive. While we may not
agree politically, a man who takes a stand for what is
right is to be respected, regardless of politics. He
demanded justice and equality for all South Africans,
and when his imprisonment came to an end, and the goals
he fought for were realized, he led by example and
worked to ease racial tension and unite the nation.
Happy birthday, Mr. Mandela. A grateful world salutes
you.

The one lesson that the world, especially certain
American politicians and activists, can glean on the
95th birthday of Nelson Mandela is the power of
forgiveness and reconciliation. Having become the
first freely elected president of South Africa after
the fall of the racist apartheid regime, he declined
to conduct a campaign of score-settling and
reprisals for the pains the black majority suffered
for so many years.

Instead Mandela strove to bring the various ethnic
groups of the country together, to start afresh, and
to try to let go of bitter history.

Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezu, near Mthatha in the
Transkei, then one of the ‘homelands’, now part of the
Eastern Cape in South Africa, on 18 July 1918. He belongs to
the Thembu tribe, a sub-group of the Xhosa people. He is
commonly known to the South African people by the honorific
title, Madiba, the name of the 18th century ancestor from
whom his Thembu clan is descended.

He is a man of many names. He was originally named
Rolihlahla Dalibhunga, but was given the English name Nelson
on his first day at school, as this was too hard for his
teachers to say.

Brought up at the Thembu royal court, he studied law at the
University College of Fort Hare, Unisa (South Africa’s
correspondence university) and the University of
Witwatersrand, but eventually left without graduating. He
eventually qualified as a lawyer in 1952, setting up his own
practice with Oliver Tambo.

Nelson joined the African National Congress in 1943,
founding the ANC Youth League, with Oliver Tambo and Walter
Sisulu, the following year. In 1952, he became one of the
architects of the Youth League’s Campaign for the Defiance
of Unjust Laws, a programme of mass civil disobedience. His
efforts earned him his first suspended conviction under the
Suppression of Communism Act.

In 1956, he was one of 156 defendants named in a massive
Treason Trial which dragged on for nearly five years before
it eventually collapsed. Meantime he continued to work
behind the scenes to create ANC policy. Regularly arrested
and banned from attending public meetings, he often
travelled in disguise and under assumed names to evade
police informers.

Following the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, the views of
Mandela and a number of his colleagues hardened into a
belief that only armed struggle would suffice. On 16
December 1961, the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River,
a cataclysmic battle between the Boers and Zulus in 1838, a
new military organisation, Umkhonto
we Sizwe (MK; Spear of the Nation), was set up. Mandela
was its commander-in-chief. Over the next two years they
carried out over 200 attacks and sent some 300 people abroad
for military training.

Travelling out of the country on false papers in 1962,
Mandela was arrested on his return and convicted to five
years in prison. He made his first trip to Robben Island,
but was soon transferred back to Pretoria to join ten other
defendants, facing new charges of sabotage. During the
eight-month long Rivonia Trial – named after the Rivonia
district where the MK had their safe house, Liliesleaf Farm
– Mandela made an impassioned speech from the dock. It
echoed around the world:

‘I have fought against white domination, and I have fought
against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in which all persons live
together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an
ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs
be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die'.

The trial ended with eight of the accused, including Mandela
found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. His lengthy
sojourn on Robben
Islandhad begun.

In 1982, after 18 years, Mandela was transferred to
Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and from there, in December
1988, to Victor Verster Prison in Paarl in the Cape
Winelands. He rejected numerous offers to recognise the
legitimacy of the so-called Homelands and go back to settle
in ‘exile’ in the Transkei. He also refused to renounce
violence, refusing to negotiate at all until he was a free
man.

In 1985 however he began ‘talks about talks’ with the then
Justice Minister, Kobie Coetsee, from his prison cell. A
secret method of communication with the ANC leadership in
Lusaka was eventually devised. On 11 February 1990, he was
released from prison, after 27 years. His euphoric speech
from the balcony of Cape Town City Hall and triumphant shout
of ‘Amandla!’
(‘Power!’) was a defining moment in African history. Talks
could begin in earnest.

In 1993, Mandela and President FW de Klerk jointly received
the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to bring about the
end of the apartheid regime. The following year, on 27
April, 1994, South Africa held its first truly democratic
elections. The ANC swept to victory.

On 10 May, 1994, Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South
Africa’s first black, democratically elected President,
talking immediately of reconciliation.

‘Never, never and never again shall it be that this
beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one
by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of
the world. Let freedom reign.’

Mandela has been married three times. He married his first
wife, Evelyn, in 1944 and had four children before divorcing
in 1958. The following year he married Winnie Madikizela,
with whom he had two children. Winnie was massively
responsible for creating the Mandela legend through her
robust campaign to free Nelson from Robben Island. The
marriage couldn’t survive Winnie’s other activities however.
They separated in 1992, after her conviction for kidnapping
and accessory to assault, divorcing in 1996. His third
marriage, on his 80th birthday, in July 1998, was to Graça
Machel, the widow of Mozambiquan President Samora Machel.
She became the only woman in the world to marry two
Presidents of different nations. They are still married.

Mandela stepped down as President in 1999, after one term in
office. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001 and
officially retired from public life in 2004. However he
continues to work quietly on behalf of his charities, the
Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Childrens’ Fund and
the Mandela-Rhodes Foundation.

In 2005 he intervened on behalf of AIDS victims in South
Africa, admitting that his son had died of the disease. And
for his 89th birthday he founded The
Elders, a group of elder statesmen including Kofi Annan,
Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu amongst other
global luminaries, to offer ‘guidance on the world’s
toughest problems’.

He published his autobiography, Long
Road to Freedom, in 1995. The Nelson
Mandela Museum first opened in 2000

Personalities
in the News

MANDELA: S/AFRICAN TOURIS
STAKEHOLDERS RAISE THE STAKE

by Justina Okpanku

The South African tourism industry, weeks after Madiba’s
death, is mobilizing to create tours to properly present
the life story of Nelson Mandela. Reports say without
Mandela, the vibrant tourism industry in South Africa
today might not exist. The fall of the apartheid regime
and the resulting opening of the country to the world
came about through the combined efforts of countless
people.

But most South Africans believe that without
Mandela’s leadership, without him bringing his
moral authority to bear, the change could not
have been brought about without a brutal and
possibly extended civil war.

“Nelson Mandela single-handedly put South Africa
on the map for billions of people around the
world,” said Thulani Nzima, CEO of South African
Tourism. “Mandela opened up our beautiful
country, once a pariah state, to the rest of the
world and his name alone has attracted millions
of tourists to South Africa every year, wanting
to walk in his footsteps.”

It takes little effort to see the historical
legacy of Mandela in South Africa. He is lauded
and memorialized throughout the country. But for
those who want to dig deeper into his legacy and
his personal history, there are tour operators
who offer programs designed expressly for that
purpose.

Meanwhile, the package, titled “Mandela’s
Journey to Freedom,” is a 10-day tour that
traces some aspects of Mandela’s life.

It includes a cultural tour of some townships in
the Cape Town area; a tour of Robben Island,
where Mandela was imprisoned for most of his 27
years as a political prisoner; visits to the
Hector Pieterson Museum and the Apartheid Museum
in Johannesburg; and a visit to the military
headquarters of the African National Congress,
Mandela’s political party.

Deluxe accommodations are provided at the Protea
Hotel Victoria Junction in Cape Town, and the
Protea Hotel Fire & Ice in Johannesburg’s
Melrose Arch. The package is priced from $2,599
per person including air from the U.S., for
example.

“As a South African, I’m incredibly proud to
introduce the ‘Mandela’s Journey to Freedom’
vacation package in conjunction with the release
of this important movie,” said Terry von
Guilleaume, president of SAA Vacations. “We’ve
taken great care to include those places where
key moments of Nelson Mandela’s anti-apartheid
struggle took place, including Liliesleaf, where
the infamous raid was carried out; as well as
Robben Island, where you visit his prison cell
and can imagine the isolation that prisoners
felt.

“We’re also very excited about the release of
the film ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,’ and
are proud to have also partnered with the film’s
distributors, The Weinstein Company, to raise
funds to benefit the Nelson Mandela Foundation.”

Africa Travel is offering a programme called
Walk in the Footsteps of Nelson Mandela, which
combines a tracing of his footsteps with a
safari in the bush.

The itinerary includes a visit to a township in
the Cape Town area with encounters with local
residents shops, a local bar, and a visit with a
traditional Xhosa healer; a tour of Robben
Island; a lesson in playing the djembe drum; and
a “taste safari” of African cuisine.

The eight-day programme is priced from $3,565
per person, including three nights
accommodations in Cape Town; two nights in
Johannesburg; and two nights in Karongwe Private
Game Reserve.

Great Safaris is offering a Mandela themed tour
called Madiba’s Journey: In Nelson Mandela’s
Footprints. The program includes an exploration
of parts of Cape Town that figure particularly
into Mandela’s life story, such as Robben
Island, Parliament, City Hall and Grand Parade.

The tour also visits Soweto, Vilakazi Street,
Nelson Mandela House Museum, Kliptown, the
Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill and Lilies
Leaf. The package is priced from $3,495 double
occupancy, land only.

Tourism
Legislation

One
of the challenges that beset the Branch was to
entrench proper understanding of legislation in the
tourism industry by all players. This because past
pieces of legislation were skewed and biased
towards a minority few, hence aggressive resistance
to the new order. As a consequence efforts were
made by others to discredit tourism legislation as
anti-growth, and retired it as doomed to deplete
arrivals to South Africa's shores.

Hence
the challenge was to be unrepentant about driving
strict adherence to policy stipulations, no matter
how unpopular they would be with others. Again the
"Blood, Sweat and Tears" approach became handy as
Dr Matlou and his charges fought battles akin to
that of "David and Goliath" in order to navigate
resilience amidst this resistance and at times
hostile media. Indeed this determination has
delivered handsome fruit!

"Dr
Matlou's contribution to the tourism industry is
incalculable. He is a living legend of all the
milestones of post-apartheid policy formulation,
rooted in the wisdom of responsible and sustainable
tourism development," comments Advocate Cawe
Mahlati, Chief Executive Officer of Gauteng Tourism
Authority.

Transformation

The
tourism tapestry in South Africa has for a long
time been characterized by a number of unwelcome
anomalies in terms of equity, ownership,
demographic spread and inequitable business
landscape. It would thus be expected that any
attempt to obviate this misdemeanor and align it
with the brand-new South African democratic
dispensation would be met with fierce
negativity.We
have spoken of two miracles that have transformed
South Africa: the miracle of political
transformation, that enabled the nation to forgive
the past and accept a new political order; and the
miracle of economic stability, which resulted in
reduced inflation and a healthy debt-to-GDP
ratio.

Our
third miracle needed to be that of economic
democratization. We needed to transform the tourism
economy so that it is fairly shared among all
population groups, unemployment is reduced and
poverty is eradicated" wryly noted Dr Matlou,
recalling the amount of work that was put in
towards aligning the tourism face to make it what
it is today.

Sindiswa
Nhlumayo, Head of the BEE Charter Council at the
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
(DEAT) confirms the rationale behind government's
aggressive attendance to transformation: "We see
BEE as a benefit to the economy and business in
South Africa. BEE enables economic growth and by
bringing on an empowerment partner will give
businesses access to new markets, which in turn
will lead to business growth".

Coordination
at different tiers of government

In
1994 the main challenge was to dismantle the old
"apartheid structures" and reorganize them in an
inclusive, democratic and egalitarian orientation.
The same principle was called for within the
tourism sector. Furthermore, it became painfully
evident that provincial tourism structures found
themselves desperately wanting in terms of
understanding their roles and responsibilities.
DEAT had to lead the painstakingly long-drawn
process of putting provinces on a wining streak!

Recognizing
the tireless work that is attributable to Matlou in
the above regard, Mr Ndabo Khoza, Chief Executive
Officer of KwaZulu Natal Tourism Authority notes:
"As Tourism KwaZulu-Natal we have been privileged
to have had the opportunity to work with Dr Matlou
for a while. He has managed to put the tourism
agenda to a wider audience, particularly public
sector stakeholders".

Furthermore,
there are now coordinated approaches to tackle
issues that negatively affect tourism such as VISA
restrictions, safety and security, transport and
airlift etc. The impact of this is monumental as
all stakeholders began to take ownership of the
tourism value chain and are committed to its
maintenance and growth.

For
instance, thus far, the implementation of the
airlift strategy, the result of a strong
partnership between DEAT, South African Tourism,
the Department of Transport and the private sector,
has shown impressive increases in capacity to bring
tourists to South Africa. Between September 2006
and January this year, rights for almost 1,4
million additional seats per year were
secured.

Profiling
Tourism Internationally

In
more ways than one South Africa has emerged as a
recognizable voice in the international tourism
arena - vehemently pushing for Africa to be
accorded equal status in terms of tourism marketing
and development as with other first-world
countries."Africa
as a continent has so much to offer. The splendour
of Africa with its unbelievable potential is highly
desired and has the opportunity to position itself
amidst this high growth global economic activity as
a prime global tourist destination. After all,
Africa is still custodian to the wild lands and
cultures and has a deep concern for nature in its
natural form" said Mr Ousmane Ndiaye, Regional
Representative for Africa at the United Nations
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Africa's
tourism growth is, however, hindered by various
factors. These factors include an inadequately
developed product and service base, a poor
perception of the safety of tourists, civil wars
and conflicts, often lacking infrastructure and
delivery infrastructure, insufficient international
and especially domestic marketing, a shortage of
well-trained frontline tourism staff, a limitation
of international flights, sectoral fragmentation
and weak intra and inter linkages within the
private and public sectors.

In
the above regard South Africa called for the
restructuring of the 157 countries and 300
Affiliate Members of the UNWTO to put Africa's
development firmly on its agenda. Even if South
Africa failed to be elected as Secretary-General of
the UNWTO owing to inadequate time to campaign, its
manifesto was endorsed by many member states,
especially noting the motion that the term of
office of the Secretary-General should not be more
than twice.

"Dr
Matlou supported our nomination for the UNWTO
Ulysses award. As we speak he has recommended that
we become associate members of the UNWTO" again
saluted Mr Ndabo Khoza.

UNWTO
grants the Ulysses Prize to a distinguished scholar
for an outstanding contribution to knowledge in
tourism, while the Awards are bestowed on projects
undertaken by public institutions in tourism which
merit distinction for their innovative
contributions to tourism policy, governance, and
areas of tourism such as the environmental, new
technologies, among others.

In
this case Tourism KwaZulu-Natal scooped a First
Prize, Award for Innovation in Tourism Governance,
which has placed its focus on the impacts of
tourism and on tourism as a tool for development,
involving local communities.

"The
African continent can also do much better than the
approximately 37 million arrivals or around 4,5% of
the 806 million global arrivals (2005). Africa
received only a small share, 3,1%, of the US$680
billion spent globally (2005) by tourists. The
travel and tourism sector can become Africa's
strongest economic sector for direct foreign
investment in future", reasons Dr
Matlou.

The
adoption of the NEPAD Tourism Action is in many
ways a product of relentless work that was
undertaken by South Africa.

On
another front, Dr Matlou played a leading role in
positioning the Regional Tourism Organizations of
Southern Africa (RETOSA), to market and promote the
Region in close cooperation with the Region's
national tourist organizations and the private
sector.

Attests
Mr Francis Mfune, RETOSA's Acting Executive
Director: "Dr Patrick Matlou was an active member
of the RETOSA Board. He will specifically be
remembered for his untiring and meticulous guidance
to RETOSA to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation
System (M & E) with performance indicators for
Monitoring the Institution's
performance".

Dr
Matlou's passion for Africa can be found in the
brief resume below:

He
completed his primary-school education in Nigeria
and then moved to complete his secondary education
and first degree (Political Science and Geography)
in Ghana in 1979. His dissertation was a
comparative analysis of the Battle of Iswandlwana
(1879), the Sharpeville crisis (1960) and the
Soweto riots (1976).

He
then went to England and completed a Masters in
International Relations in 1980; his thesis dealt
with the defunct East African Economic Community.
He worked in Liberia as a lecturer in Political
Science at the University of Liberia from 1981 to
1986 and returned to England where he completed his
PhD in 1992, specializing on Botswana's refugee
policy.

Dr
Matlou returned to South Africa in September 1994
after working for the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees in Kenya.

Message to
the Tourism Industry

"I
am indeed humbled to have been, in a small way part
of a process that has established groundwork for
tourism in South Africa to thrive to greater
heights. However, my message to the industry and
those that will take after us is that we should not
rest on our laurels and think we have won the
battle. I propose that a bigger war to be won is
that of transformation, so that all citizens of
this country derive an equal share from the tourism
pie, so that through tourism our lot is emancipated
from the shackles of poverty, unemployment and lack
of education," noted Dr Matlou.

Encouraging
officials to be steadfast and committed to service,
he said, "You should always count yourselves lucky
that you are able to go to work in this very
competitive industry. There are many who would
cherish the opportunity of finding employment, who
would rather work for free in order to gain
experience. Always cling dear to your work and
aspire to achieve one goal everyday &endash;
contributing positively to the life of South
Africans, from whose tax you derive a
salary".

Conclusion

At
the close of his 5 June 2007 National Assembly
debate on the Budget Vote of the Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus Van
Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism declared, " None of the achievements
that I have spoken of today would be possible
without the hard work and dedication of these
outstanding individuals whose commitment to
consolidating the achievements of our first decade
of freedom is without question".

It
is tempting, very tempting to suggest that the
Minister was actually referring to the fact that
tourism in South Africa is basking in the glory and
limelight brought about by: "Blood, Sweat and
Tears"!

Dr
Patrick Matlotleng Matlou is to leave DEAT at the
end of August 2007 to pursue other
interests.